William Grenville was born in 1759. He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. He studied law at Lincoln’s Inn. Grenville was the son of Whig Prime Minister George Grenville. Moreover, William Pitt the Elder was Grenville’s uncle by marriage, and Pitt the Younger was his cousin.

In 1782, Grenville entered the House of Commons as MP for Buckingham. He soon aligned with Pitt the Younger. During the 1780s, he served as Paymaster of the Forces and Speaker of the House of Commons. In 1790, Grenville was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Grenville. Between 1790-1801, he would be the Leader of the House of Lords, providing critical support to Pitt in the upper house.

Pitt promoted him to Home Secretary in 1789 and then Foreign Secretary in 1791. This period was dominated by the fallout from the French Revolution, and Britain went to war with Revolutionary France in 1793, with much European diplomacy required in the years that followed.

Grenville served in the Buckinghamshire volunteers as an officer during the 1790s and 1800s.

In 1801, Grenville left office with Pitt due to the controversy over Catholic emancipation. However, in opposition, Grenville became close to Charles James Fox. So close, in fact, that when Pitt returned to government, Grenville refused to serve if Fox could not join them (which George III vetoed).

When Pitt died in early 1806, George reluctantly asked Grenville to form a government, which Grenville accepted on the condition that he could appoint whoever he liked. He tried to unite the Foxite Whigs and the ‘Addingtonites’, appointing Fox as Foreign Secretary and Lord Sidmouth as Lord President of the Council. But the powerful Pittites (Canning, Castlereagh, Perceval, and Hawkesbury) all remained outside the government. Consequently, Grenville’s cabinet was inexperienced, and the situation worsened with the death of Fox in September. The government was mocked as ‘the Ministry of All the Talents’, which is how posterity has recorded it.

Grenville hoped that his government might make peace with France. But Napoleon, who had just shattered the Third Coalition at Austerlitz was in little mood to negotiate with Britain. In response, Grenville adopted a ‘defensive and husbanding’ policy, waiting for Napoleon to make a mistake which they could capitalise on. Ultimately, he made two – invading Spain in 1808, allowing the British to commit an army under Wellington to the Peninsular, and then invading Russia in 1812, destroying his army – both of them after Grenville left office.

Grenville’s greatest achievement was the passing of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807. Between 1640 and 1807, British ships had transported 3.4 million Africans to the Americas. Grenville pushed ahead where previous attempts had failed. He steered the Bill through the Lords, while Charles Grey did the same for the Commons. The abolition of the trade received royal assent on the day Grenville resigned.

Grenville also hoped to achieve reform in the shape of Catholic emancipation. But, as with Pitt, George III remained committed to his coronation oath to uphold the Protestant faith. The government attempted to draw up a Bill for some limited emancipatory measures without the King’s approval, but when he learned of this activity, George was furious and ordered it withdrawn. He went on to insist that every minister promise him that they would never again raise the Catholic question. Grenville, and Charles Grey, who was now Foreign Secretary, refused, and resigned. With them, the government collapsed. He had been Prime Minister for just 1 year and 42 days.

Grenville was not an old man when his premiership ended and devoted much of the rest of his life to non-parliamentary affairs. He refused positions in subsequent governments. He became Chancellor of Oxford University from 1809 to 1834.

Grenville is only the second Prime Minister to have had a father who was also Prime Minister (George Grenville, 1763-65). Grenville married Anne Pitt in 1792. They had no children.

Grenville died in 1834.